Tennessee kills bill allowing students to keep guns in autos on campus

Tennessee kills bill allowing students to keep guns in autos on campus

What’s going on in Tennessee? There was a bill moving through the state legislature in the Volunteer State which would have allowed student permit holders on public college campuses to store their weapons in their cars. But after some of the usual wrangling over amendments, the legislation died a sudden death.

A House subcommittee on Wednesday killed a bill that, as it was amended in the state Senate, would have allowed students to keep guns in their cars on public college campuses in Tennessee…

Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, the bill’s Senate sponsor, added an amendment to the Senate version that prohibited any public higher education institution from taking action against an employee or student of the school for transporting and storing a firearm or ammunition “in compliance with” the handgun-carry permit law while using a parking area owned, used or operated by the school…

The subcommittee killed the bill on voice vote after members spoke against the Senate amendment. Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, told the bill’s House sponsor, Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, that he supported the original bill because he said it was designed to make it clear that people can have guns in their cars when they pull onto school property to drop off or pick up their children.

But Carter added, “There was a Senate amendment put on this bill. Are you going to add that amendment on? I do not support it; I will not support it,” Carter told Matheny.